Inches to Metric: The Magic of Hebrew #3

The Magic of Hebrew… the final in this series. I’m hoping to demystify/crack the code of Hebrew by sharing some of my favorite tips, regarding “Our People’s” language. This post will not be for everybody; mainly diehard Hebrew adventurers. All brave enough to read this will learn, and laugh! To read a prior post click on the tab at the top My Blog.

Basic blocking and tackling…of Hebrew 

Modern Hebrew, created from Biblical Hebrew was based on the alphabet/written words found in “Our” Torah/Sacred Scroll. Many believe the Scrolls were divinely inspired/written similar to channeling, and accept the magic/power our alphabet holds.

The oldest Sacred Scrolls (five books of Moses) on record are dated from 300 BC/BCE (Before Christ, Western standards, or BCE, Before the Common Era). The Jewish calendar and way of recording time has its own unique system.

Hebrew without vowels

The scroll does not contain vowels. Originally the stories were passed down orally, and pronunciations were memorized. Once the Torah was written into a scroll format, it became standard practice for people to gather in open market places several times each week to hear the scroll chanted. It was entertainment, similar to listening to an old radio show/soap opera/ballad.

Opened Torah scroll. Photo courtesy Beth Kopin

A vowel system was eventually created, made up of dots and dashes (comparable to English vowels AEIOU). It was developed 700 AD/CE (After Jesus’s death, or 700 CE, Common Era). It took 1000 years to codify the vowels, I’m grateful for the vowels!

Hebrew is written right to left. There is no concept of capital or lower case letters. The letters remain unchanged in the beginning of a word; a few letters change if at the end of  words. There is formal and script writing. Once you learn the alphabet, vowels and rules its simple to decode.

Hebrew alphabet word chart. Photo courtesy Beth Kopin

The challenge...

In Israel all are expected to read without vowels by third grade. Whose idea was that? For example: book spelled as bk, could be read as book, bike, bake, buck, or beak. Context gives clues to pronunciation. Adult books, newspapers, advertisements and subtitles, are without vowels; children’s books, Hebrew prayer books, and the bound Bible has vowels.

Hebrew with vowels

This prayer shown below is the Sh’Mah, with vowels. This is “Our” most important Jewish prayer. It states above the prayer it was taken from our Sacred Scroll in the book of Dvarim/Numbers. The prayer reads “Hear Oh Israel the Lord our G-D the Lord is One”. The declaration of monotheism to the Jewish People and ultimately to the world.

The Sh’ Mah, shown with vowels. Photo courtesy Beth Kopin

 Hebrew vs English w/tips

-Every rule has exceptions!

-The only easy part to learning Hebrew is the decoding. There are no blending of letters its all as you see. With vowels we can easily pronounce words.

– English is the opposite, it has many complicated rules regarding pronunciation with vowels; silent letters, long/short sounds depending on multiple factors, various ways to spell the same sound ex: ough as in enough, ph as in phone, f as in fish, with the same “f” sound, hu?

-Hebrew has sounds which are foreign to English speakers; ex: kh (a gutteral scratchy sound), like chutzpah (audacious/nerve). We also have a tz/ts like tzimmis, (a stewed fruit situation), or tch as in tchulunt (a slow cooking stew).

-English has sounds difficult for Israelis to pronounce, th as in Beth and j as in Jeff (ironic no?)

-Hebrew is gender specific. An Israeli mother speaks differently to her son than to her daughter. When speaking with mixed sexes you speak in the masculine, women speaking with women speak in the feminine, a male speaking to a woman will speak in the feminine and visa versa.

-Hebrew is a more efficient language than English. There are several word structures, my favorite/most difficult to use is Heet-Pah-El. One Hebrew word can mean four in English, ex: Hit-ka-lach-ti = I took a shower.

-A verb can be a single letter, as in le’ (to) or be’ (in).

-Sometimes the rules don’t make sense to English logic when referring to a specific object, the=ha, as in the book/sefer (they throw in an ‘et randomly), “et ha sefer”

– Sentence structures are reversed when using adjectives, ex: English we say blue ball, Hebrew ball blue.

-Understanding the root (shoresh) of a word helps in comprehension, ex: shev = sit, shevah = seven. We are commanded to rest/sit on the Sabbath at the end of seven days, and we sit/mourn for seven days called Shivah, all are connected.

-Dialects vary, the word for Sabbath, can also be Shabbos, or Shabbat, (link explains Sabbath by Rabbi Josh Franklin).

-Nouns are tricky…they are gender specific. Masculine ex: house, roof, walls, windows, table, desk, chair, carpet. Feminine ex: ceiling, kitchen, balcony, floor, drapes, door. Try memorizing those?

-Singular ending female adjective is ‘ah, for male nothing. She is smart, (he chachamah), he is smart (who chacham).

-Plurals of nouns end in ‘ot feminine or ‘im masculine. Most plurals of nouns end in ‘ot (sounds feminine), even if the object is masculine ex: tables/shulchanot.

-Anything in pairs on your body is feminine ex; eyes, ears, legs, with a masculine ending, ‘im as in ears/oznayim. I just learned that breast is masculine, with a masculine ending, hu?

-Most outdoor nouns are masculine, and use male endings ‘im, ex: trees/eitzim, garden/ganim, flowers/perachim, heaven/shamayim, nature/tevaim, stars/cochavim, except land borders are masculine and end in feminine plural gevulot? Outdoor words in feminine include, land/eretz ends in artzot, sunset, moon.

-A common mistake when using “with me/’im”, is Imi, it turns into “Iti.”

Huge exceptions numbers!

When a noun is masculine its quantity is written in the feminine form ‘ah. Hu? I think I was daydreaming in first grade when we were taught that rule. Ex: book is masculine you would say six books/shishah sefarim, or three children/shelosha yeladim, three girls/shalosh yaldot.

Bonus tip

Difficult to read words containing s/samechs or t/tets are usually transliterated, like television (televizia) or history (historia).

Proper Hebrew vs Street Hebrew

People learning Hebrew are sometimes confused by the differences between educated Israeli speakers and the person on the street. I walked into my favorite wine shop in Jerusalem checked Morfix (translation tool) to determine gender for bottles (masculine) asked for six bottles, sheesha bakbukim and the store owner corrected me saying shaysh. I shrugged my shoulders and spoke in English.

Why these arbitrary rules? They were taken from our bible. If you ask an Israeli they will shrug their shoulders, say you need to practice but respect you for trying; although they are shocked as so few Americans actually speak Hebrew.

“We” can/should work on that!